Any online search for Jalisco’s highest peaks will show el Nevado de Colima, el Volcán de Fuego and Tequila Volcano at the top of the list.

After that, there are differences of opinion, but everyone agrees that El Cerro de García, whose summit is officially registered at 2,750 meters (9,022.31 feet), is one of Jalisco’s ten tallest mountains and that its designation as no more than a cerro (hill) is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek joke.

“From our privileged position on the Chapala Rivera, no connoisseur of outdoor landscapes and sports could possibly fail to notice the looming silhouette of El Cerro de García,” says Franky Alvarez Maxemin, the founder of Turismo Rural de Jalisco. “It’s the most prominent of the chain of high hills and mountains that circumscribe our majestic lake, delighting the eye of the distant observer and all five senses of those who reach its summit.”

Members of Turismo Rural de Jalisco and the Lakeside Jeep Club teamed up last month to combine trekking and off-road, in an attempt to reach the peak of García.

The eight-man group, comprised of Canadians, Americans and Mexicans, met at La Floresta and drove 50 kilometers to San Luis Soyatlán, where they followed a narrow, rocky brecha (dirt road) uphill through an area almost devoid of human beings. They did, however, bump into one man along the way, an old-timer named Alfonso who was bringing a 100-pound load of camotes del cerro (mountain yams) down the hill on his donkey.